ID :
212514
Thu, 10/13/2011 - 02:26
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/212514
The shortlink copeid
USFK chief calls N. Korea's threats a major challenge
By Lee Chi-dong
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) - The commander of U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday described North Korea's military threats and China's military build-up as two major challenges in the region.
On a visit to the U.S. for the U.S. Army's annual meeting, Gen. James Thurman stressed the importance of the alliance with South Korea in dealing with China's rise as an economic and military powerhouse and North Korea's efforts to proliferate weapons of mass destruction.
"The Korea-U.S. alliance provides the U.S. with an important platform for responding to these challenges," he said in the meeting.
On North Korea, "the current focus remains ... on significant counter-provocation response and heightened vigilance," he said. "We've been in Iraq. Yes, we've been in Afghanistan. But today, if something goes bad, we have to defend that peninsula."
He pointed out that the communist nation has the world's fourth-largest military with about 1.2 million service members.
"Seventy percent of that force is ... arranged just across that DMZ (demilitarized zone)," the general said.
Thurman was sworn in as the head of the 28,000-strong U.S. forces in South Korea in July. The stationing of the troops on the peninsula is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire. A USFK commander usually serves three years in the post.
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) - The commander of U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday described North Korea's military threats and China's military build-up as two major challenges in the region.
On a visit to the U.S. for the U.S. Army's annual meeting, Gen. James Thurman stressed the importance of the alliance with South Korea in dealing with China's rise as an economic and military powerhouse and North Korea's efforts to proliferate weapons of mass destruction.
"The Korea-U.S. alliance provides the U.S. with an important platform for responding to these challenges," he said in the meeting.
On North Korea, "the current focus remains ... on significant counter-provocation response and heightened vigilance," he said. "We've been in Iraq. Yes, we've been in Afghanistan. But today, if something goes bad, we have to defend that peninsula."
He pointed out that the communist nation has the world's fourth-largest military with about 1.2 million service members.
"Seventy percent of that force is ... arranged just across that DMZ (demilitarized zone)," the general said.
Thurman was sworn in as the head of the 28,000-strong U.S. forces in South Korea in July. The stationing of the troops on the peninsula is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire. A USFK commander usually serves three years in the post.
